1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card reader control system and, more particularly, to a card speed determination system in a manual card reader wherein a card such as a magnetic card is manually driven to travel in a card reader.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a card travelling speed influences on the accuracy of the reading operation in a card reader system. For example, in a manual magnetic card reader, a magnetic card is manually driven to travel in the card reader. Therefore, the card travelling speed is variable. When the card is driven to travel at a considerably high speed, the reader system can not follow the travelling speed of the card so that an erroneous reading operation (vertical and/or horizontal parity check error) occurs. When the card is manually driven to travel at a considerably low speed, the reading signal can not be easily obtained.
Therefore, especially in a magnetic card reader, the magnetic card must be driven to travel at a speed falling in a predetermined range. In the conventional system, when a card reading error is detected, the application program can detect the error contents. However, it is not determinative whether the reading error is caused by an abnormal card travelling speed or by other reasons where the card is driven to travel at a preferred speed.